An Accredited Ministry (2 Corinthians 3:1–6)

In what is a kind of digression until 7:5, Paul presents his credentials to the Corinthians to protect them from the false apostles who were peddling the word of God. “Paul’s ministry is certificate enough of his apostolic authority” (Bruce).

In this passage we have a glimpse of the kind of ministers we need and the kind of ministry we need from them. We consider this under two simple headings.

Evidence of an Accredited Ministry

Self-Commendation?

This theme of commendation runs right through this letter (4:2; 5:12; 6:4; 10:12; 10:17–18; 12:11. See also “boast” [10:13, 15; 11:10, 16, 17, 18, 30; 12:1, 5, 6, 9]). But Paul uses these words in an ironic way. That is, though he felt foolish for commending the authenticity of his ministry, the welfare of the church at Corinth depended on him doing so. As he will say in 12:11, the church should have been commending the authenticity/integrity of his ministry, which would have made self-commendation unnecessary.

We see from this the value of the local church. Paul humiliated himself by defending himself for the protection of the church. In a sense he was saying, “You need my God-authorised, God-centred ministry and therefore I will do all in my power to give it to you.” In other words, as we see time and again, Paul had a true shepherd’s heart. Because he was committed to the welfare of the church, he was commending his ministry—introducing himself as an approved, authentic minister of the gospel. This is the only kind of minister the church deserves. Paul refused any false humility and he stated clearly that he was worthy to be listened to (see 1 Corinthians 4:16; 11:1).

Though most pastors have times when they struggle with imposter syndrome—and because the truth of God’s word is so pure they will often feel that they fall short and thus at times feel like frauds—like Paul, a truly God-appointed, God-approved minister should be able to say, “Despite my sinful flesh, I am the real deal and you can trust my ministry.” And as Paul will reveal shortly, the proof of his competence, the proof of his self-commendation will be found, not in the pudding but in the transformation of the people of God (see 1 Corinthians 4:16; 11:1).

A Letter of Recommendation

It would seem that false apostles had infiltrated the church with glowing CVs, purportedly from the church in Jerusalem, commending their ministry. As the church read these glowing resumes, some of the undiscerning were gobsmacked to read of their financial success because of their skill at public speaking, their academic pedigree, and their popularity among “Christians.” Being mesmerised by the flashy they would have failed to discern that their message and ministry was fleshly. Some in the church were therefore being seduced away from the gospel of Jesus Christ (11:1–4). This is the background of Paul’s reference here to “letters of recommendation.”

This second part of v. 1 is clearly rhetorical with the expectation of a “No!” answer. As Paul will make clear, their existence as a transformed people of God is credential enough that he was the real deal with the real gospel. In fact, to question the authenticity of his message and ministry was to question the authenticity of their own faith. For the Corinthians to require Paul’s “accreditation” was like someone demanding to see an accreditation certificate from Oxford or Cambridge.

Rwanda, after the genocide, experienced some wonderful gospel growth. But in the last couple of years, the government has cracked down on churches, requiring them to register with the government. They must be “accredited.” The government requires that a church have its own building and, rightly, that the building be in accordance with health and safety regulations. But it also requires that pastors be trained by an accredited institution. Now, there are various reasons for this crackdown, some sinister. At the same time, the government is concerned about the prosperity skelms abusing Rwandans. This “government accreditation” requirement is spreading on our continent. I have run into it in Namibia. There are lots of hoops to jump through to preach there. And most of the motivation is because of “so many peddlers of God’s word.”

Paul is making the point, in this opening verse, that he is not a corrupter of the gospel and they know it. Therefore, he will provide no certificate! He is not being obnoxious. Instead, he argues that he has far more credible authentication of his ministry: the Corinthian church itself.

A Christian Letter

Rather than pointing to a paper-and-ink certificate to authenticate his gospel ministry, it was the lives of believing Corinthians, transformed by Jesus Christ, that gave credibility to his ministry. They were living letters of his faithful ministry. They were what we might call “Christian letters.”

Their existence, through his faithful gospel ministry, was proof enough that he did not adulterate God’s word. Their transformation through his faithful gospel ministry stood as a flesh-and-blood letter of commendation. As Guthrie observes, “Real ministry from God will be self-authenticating in the lives of those who are transformed by the gospel.” Paul says that the church should hold up a spiritual mirror, able to affirm his ministry. Derek Prime, commenting on this passage, observes that “transformed lives authenticate both the message and the messengers” of competent, God-approved gospel ministers. The proof is in the pudding of the congregation. This is both a glorious and convicting truth.

Paul uses a touching image of writing these “letters” on the writing desk/table of the “hearts” of he and his coworkers. His gospel ministry to them was not a matter of ticking an evangelistic box. Rather, he was lovingly and passionately committed to shepherding them to Christlikeness. Contra the false apostles, whose motive appears to have been to vaunt themselves, he desired the spiritual beauty of those to whom he ministered. And this beauty was intended to “be known and read by all.” He wanted to improve these “Christian letters” so that others would know, not of him, but about the glorious Saviour, the Lord Jesus Christ. Notice what he says in v. 3: “And you show that you are a letter from Christ delivered by us, written not with ink but with the Spirit of the living God, not on tablets of stone but on tablets of human hearts.”

Paul deflects attention from his efforts to the true writer of these letters: “Christ.” He saw himself and his coworkers as instruments through whom Christ produced these transformed letters. Or, like postal workers, they merely “delivered” the letter. This reminds me of the time I heard John MacArthur say, that like a waiter at a restaurant, the pastor’s job is not to be the chef who makes the meal but rather the waiter who delivers the meal to the table without messing it up! Different metaphor, but same point.

The word translated “show” means to render apparent, to manifest, or manifestly declare. It connotes revealing something. It means, in short, to show!

This is remarkable when you consider to whom Paul is writing: the Corinthians! Yet he was an eyewitness to the transformation brought about by the “Spirit of the living God” when he preached the unadulterated gospel to them. He saw how the Spirit of God wrote large the saving grace of God on the “tablets of [their] living hearts.” This church was not a collection of dead letters but rather a congregation of living Christians, changed and indwelt by “the Spirit of the living God.” Praise God! All those with eyes to see could see these living letters. They could the Lord Jesus Christ. Not perfectly, but truly. Paul’s ministry was authenticated by these living testimonies to the grace of God. Are we such letters? “What the gospel does for people is so remarkable that their lives become open letters in which to discover the power and grace of Christ…. Our lives are to be like open letters that anyone may read, in which we testify to our Saviour’s power” (Prime).

When I was in my early twenties, I wrote a letter to the singer-songwriter Jackson Browne in which I shared the gospel and appealed for his repentance and faith. It seemed clear from his lyrics that he was searching for meaning in life and as he wrote a couple of songs questioning what happens after death. (His wife committed suicide shortly after giving birth to their son.) I pointed him to the only hope we have in life and death: the Lord Jesus Christ.

In the late 1990s, I wrote a similar gospel letter to Brenda Fassie after reading about the messiness of her life. As I shared the gospel, I appealed for her to repent and believe on the Lord Jesus Christ.

I never received a reply from either Browne or Fassie. Fassie died in 2004, aged forty. I hope that she turned to Christ. Jackson Browne is still singing, and it would seem that he remains an unbeliever. At 76, time is ticking for him to respond to Christ. I pray he does.

I share those stories to illustrate that what we can call “gospel letters” are a legitimate means of proclaiming Jesus Christ. Even such letters from total strangers. And yet there is probably no substitute for face-to-face evangelism. There is no substitute for person-to-person evangelistic impact. It is one thing to share the gospel; it can be quite another to show the impact of the gospel. Paul has this in mind as he addresses the Corinthian church as “gospel letters.” Listen to Origen, a second century church writer, who captures the essence of Paul’s words:

Paul Washer was recently asked, “What is the biggest problem in the church?” With Washer-like forthrightness, he answered, “Pastors.” After an uncomfortable silence from a crown, which included a lot of pastors, he explained. “Churches that don’t pray have elders that don’t pray. Churches that don’t pursue communion with God have elders that don’t prioritise communion with God.” I think he is right.

I don’t think the apostle Paul is saying that, if someone is converted, that automatically legitimises the person and ministry of the one who preached the message. Instead, Paul’s point is that the evident transformation of a people in Corinth, formed into a local church that continued to pursue Christ, both authenticated the message that was preached and, to some degree, the messenger who declared it.

There will always be critics who see the worst in a minister, while others see the best. Paul went through this (see 6:8). The issue is whether he is living and speaking “in the sight of God in Christ.” If he truly lives with God as his audience, most likely his ministry will be authentic. But he must guard this.

Empowerment for an Accredited Ministry

“Through Christ” is “crucial,” writes Seifrid. “The crucified and risen Christ is the vehicle of his empowerment.” His confidence that they were a credible “letter of recommendation” of his authentic ministry lies not in himself but rather in the Lord. As Tasker comments, “By proclaiming the gospel he enabled the finger of Christ to write an indelible message not on tables of stone but on the ‘fleshy tables of the heart.’” And with these words Paul’s mind moves to the new covenant in distinction to the old covenant.

Competent Incompetence

A key to gospel competence is heart-conviction about one’s incompetence. If I can illustrate this personally for a moment.

Many people who know our church greatly appreciate it. They speak of the commitment of the congregation and of the body life in which members minister to one another in so many ways. People comment on our missions outreach and the blessing we have been to other local churches. When I hear these things, I normally have two responses: first, gratitude to God for the church; and, second, bafflement over the church. That is, how has this come about? After all, I know my own weaknesses, my own failures, my own sinfulness. And I know that my fellow elders are aware of my and their own inadequacies. The only answer to “Why BBC?” is, “Our sufficiency is of God.”

Our sovereign God makes up for our incompetence. By his Spirit, he empowers the ministry of the word, which is evidenced by transformed lives. We might be (and I trust are) accredited by God, but God gets all the credit. Philip Hughes sums this up well: “He who has, through Christ, received all things from God looks with confidence, through Christ, to God.”

Screening Procedure

Understanding the nature of the new covenant is importantly tied to this matter of an accredited ministry, for it is the nature of the new covenant that empowers Paul’s gospel ministry. In other words, Paul’s ministerial credentials rest on his faithfulness to declare the new covenant.

The old covenant was written with the finger of God on “tablets of stone” (Exodus 31:18). The new covenant is written by God on “human [fleshly] hearts.”

There is clearly a difference between the covenants (see Jeremiah 31:31–34; Ezekiel 11:19–20; 36:26–27). Paul mentions the new covenant pointing “to authentic Christian ministry in which God places the Spirit of God in the hearts of his people” (Guthrie). We will unpack this more thoroughly upcoming studies but, for our purposes here, we need to understand why Paul introduces the new covenant here.

First, as we will see in future studies, it seems that the false apostles were guilty of neglecting the new covenant in favour of promoting the old covenant. The reason is simple: Old covenant religion is easier. Whereas the old covenant demanded the blood of a substitute sacrifice, the new covenant demands both the sacrifice of a substitute and willingness to suffer with that sacrifice.

Second, the nature of the new covenant demands the Spirit’s power, whereas the old covenant could, at least superficially, be fulfilled in the flesh. Whereas the old covenant was external in its operation, and could be carried out with hearts of stone, the new covenant could only by carried out by the power of God’s Spirit. That is difficult to imitate.

Faithfulness to the gospel of Christ is the litmus test of authentic ministry. At the end of the day, a ministry must be evaluated by its faithfulness to the gospel. If it is faithful to the gospel, it is authentic. We need to remember this, perhaps particularly in our day.

It is to be lamented that social media is often a place where good and faithful ministries are maligned and faithful ministers slanderously, maliciously disparaged. The litmus test of a ministry is fidelity to the gospel. If a Spirit-filled man is faithful to preach Jesus Christ—the Son of God made Son of man who lived a perfect life, who died a satisfactory, substitutionary death on behalf of believing sinners and who rose from the dead for their justification—we must be careful about writing them off as heretics, frauds, or enemies of Christ. This does not mean that there is no room for disagreement about other doctrines or their practices. But Paul makes clear that the measure of a God-authorised ministry is a Spirit-empowered commitment to the proclamation of the new covenant in Christ. And as I sought to articulate in a recent article, this is the kind of ministry that the local church needs. These are the kind of ministers we need. This brings us to the last phrase, “For the letter kills, but the Spirit gives life.”

Letter Versus Spirit?

A problem with all of these views is that they ignore the context. For example, concerning the latter view, Paul has just said that the same gospel that promises life also announces death (2:16). Under the old covenant, people died, as they do under the new covenant. But the problem is not with the covenant. The problem is with its application.

As Philip Hughes summarises, “The distinction between the letter and the spirit indicates the difference between the law externally written at Sinai on tablets of stone and the same law as written internally in the heart of the Christian believer.” This is done by the Spirit of God. Authentic ministry is Spirit-empowered.

Apart from the Spirit’s application of the “letter,” all we have are dead letters. Or in the contextual case before us, dead letters. Hence Guthrie can write that “The ‘letter,’ then, refers to an attempt to minister or engage the Scriptures apart from the new covenant work of the Spirit.” In distinction to false apostles, Paul avoided such folly.

Under the old covenant, people sought to obey the letter of the law with hearts of stone. Of course, they could not keep the law, but even if hypothetically they did, their hearts would not have been changed and therefore they would remain in their sin, alienated from God. But the same danger exists under the new covenant.

I am grateful that, in recent decades, there has been a widespread return to an emphasis on gospel-centred ministry and preaching. But I am also aware of the danger of what Paul mentions here: a gospel of the letter and not of the Spirit for, as just mentioned, a Spiritless gospel is a deadly as a Spiritless non-gospel.

Reciting the gospel elements of 1 Corinthians 15:3–4 (the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus Christ, according to the Scriptures) is not sufficient for hearts of stone to be transformed to hearts of flesh (i.e. “human hearts” [v. 3]). Those elements must be proclaimed and believed, but they will only be believed if the Spirit enables belief. This is what Paul is saying. Yes, he was well-educated and, despite criticisms to the contrary, able to clearly communicate the gospel message. But  he was very aware that, unless the Spirit of God worked in the hearts of hearers—unless the Holy Spirit attended his ministry—his words would be just that: lifeless words, even though they were God’s words.

“God’s word will not return void!” you object. True. But as Paul made clear in chapter 2, sometimes his purpose is to condemn, to kill. Sometimes his words are to be a “ministry of death” (2:7). Murray Harris agrees, “In themselves words cannot produce righteousness, even though they be divine oracles. There was to be a vitalising Spirit to charge the words with transforming power.” I say all this to make two very important applications.

First, do you know merely the letter of the gospel or have you experienced the power of the gospel through its application by the Spirit of God? I wept as I typed that question, thinking, “Are there those who attend BBC—perhaps even members of BBC—who know how the gospel is packaged, who know its definition, and yet they do not know its power and its dynamic?” This is a matter of eternal life and death.

Does God’s Spirit bear witness with your spirit that you are a born-again child of God? Can you testify to a transformed appetite, a converted attitude towards the Lord, a change in your affections from the things of the world to the “things above” (Colossians 3:1–2)?

As important as it is that those entering church membership be able to articulate the gospel, let us not lose sight of the need to be able to testify of an experiential knowledge of the gospel by the ministry of the Holy Spirit.

Second, the local church needs this kind of ministry and these sorts of ministers. There is a reason that the apostles prioritised perseverance in prayer and perseverance in the ministry of the word (Acts 6:4). There is a reason they did not separate these. The knew that the letter kills, but the Spirit gives life.

Pastors, we must pray and preach and never preach unless we first pray. Congregation, we must pray for those who preach and pray while they preach. Spiritual growth, as we will see in v. 18, does not come by osmosis. Just sitting here is not enough. We must come prepared to be transformed by the gospel. Come asking God’s Spirit to change you, to give you life. As the old hymn puts it,

Oh Spirit of God, give us life! Oh Spirit of God, own the ministry of our churches.

AMEN